Folk Music, the Musical Industrial Complex, and “Hey Joe.”

The musical industrial complex can
be as mercenary as its military counterpart; especially for folk musicians. Most old-time folkies agree that prior to the
Kingston Trio hitting it big in 1958 with a best selling record of “Tom Dooley,”
commercial instincts were usually ignored by the majority of musicians who
played traditional songs on traditional string instruments. The lucrative success of the trio changed the
culture and music ownership and publishing rights became an obsession. Business minded musicians began focused on
publishing. Randy Sparks (founder of the
New Christy Minstrels and their farm team The Back Porch Majority) carried a
notebook with the copyright expiration dates of every Stephen Foster tune and
dozens of folk tunes. The day each expired was the day he re-wrote the song and
submitted his new version for copyright approval.

“Hey Joe” sounds like an old murder
ballad that somehow found its way into the set lists of 1960’s garage bands; it
sold millions of copies after Jimi Hendrix recorded it and as of 2010 has been
recorded at least 1600 times. It’s dark
and disturbing but it’s not very old. And its history is almost as dark as the
story it tells.

Niela Miller, circa 1955

It all began in 1955
when a New Yorker named Niela Miller wrote a song called “Baby Please
Don’t Go to Town.” It used a circle-of-fifths chord progression;
C G D A E E7 and a ‘question and answer’ lyric format. In 1956 Niela taught her boyfriend, guitarist
Billy Roberts, her tune.

A few years after Niela and Billy went their
separate ways Roberts re-wrote the song: He kept the chord progression and the
same question and answer format, but her song about a romantic breakup became
his song about a murder. Roberts
possibly was also inspired by Carl Smith’s 1953 country hit "Hey Joe", which shared the
title and the 'question and answer' format; and by the traditional ballad "Little Sadie",
which tells of a man on the run after he has shot his wife. Roberts performed the song from 1959 until
1962 without recording it or copyrighting it.
It was a compelling song and numerous folkies recall him performing it
that early. Some, like Dick Weissman and Pete Seeger, recognized Niela’s
composition at the root of it.

Leadsheet registered 1962 by Billy Roberts

In 1962 while performing in Washington D.C.
Roberts took the time to register “Hey Joe” at the Library of Congress, and
there is supposedly a tape he made at about the same time, but it hasn’t been
made public. He told friends that he wrote out the chord progression and lyrics
and mailed them to himself in a registered letter years earlier. It remained
unopened as proof that he wrote it.
That same year Niela recorded an acetate of her song catalog and copyrighted
her songs. Seeger encouraged her to seek
a legal remedy over “Hey Joe” and offered to testify on her behalf. She didn’t because chord progressions can’t
be copyrighted.

Billy Roberts, circa 1960

The copyright conflict didn’t end in 1962
however. Billy had traveled throughout the U.S.
and Europe with his friend Dino Valenti. Everywhere
they went they busked on the street and performed in clubs. “Hey Joe” was always in Robert’s set list and
when Valenti moved to Los Angeles
in 1963 he began performing it himself.
Subsequently a number of local bands added the song to their live sets,
including the Byrds, the Leaves, Love, and the Buffalo Springfield. There was actually a race to release a
folk-rock or rock version of the song on record in 1965 and the Leaves won. The
Leaves were tenacious: They eventually released three different recordings of
“Hey Joe” in the course of two years, and the third one became a regional hit
and gained some national radio exposure.

That’s when Roberts found out that Valenti
had copyrighted the song for himself in 1963 and signed a publishing contract
with a Los Angeles
publishing house. Roberts was able to
regain his composing credit through negotiations, but couldn’t get out of
sharing the publishing income with the L.A.
publisher.

Los
Angeles however was good for
“Hey Joe.” There were numerous recordings being made of the song; some slow
versions and some faster. Tim Rose was a
folk musician who had been around for a while, previously performing in Greenwich Village with John Phillips and Cass Elliot (who
later formed the Mamas & Papas) and then with Jake Holmes (whose 1967
acoustic song “Dazed & Confused” was famously stolen by Led Zeppelin - he
sued, and they finally settled in 2012.)
Rose was a bluesy shouter who slowed “Hey Joe” down, changed some words
and the key, and also copyrighted it as his arrangement of a traditional public
domain song. It wasn’t the first time he made that mistake: He also had claimed
Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew” was in the public domain after he adapted Fred
Neil’s version. Rose told journalist Ritchie Unterberger that he first heard
“Hey Joe” in 1960 at a bluegrass festival, and that Vince Martin had taught him
how to play it and that Martin told him that he had learned it from a woman.
Vince Martin was a member of the Tarriers in the late 50’s and Fred Neil’s duo
partner in the ‘60’s. You don’t have to
dig deep on the internet to find Vince’s rants against record companies and
publishers. He’s still looking for royalties and residuals from the Tarrier’s
1957 hit song “Cindy, Oh Cindy.”

Rose released his slow version of “Hey Joe”
on a 1966 Columbia
single that came out while the Leaves version was already on the charts. So it didn’t sell well, but one guy who heard
it (or saw Rose perform it) was Jimi Hendrix who incorporated Tim’s arrangement
into his performances at Greenwich Village’s
Café Wha? A few months later Hendrix was in England recording his first single,
“Hey Joe.” When it was released it listed Roberts as composer.

Billy Roberts finally recorded a commercial
album, Thoughts of California in 1975. It didn’t contain “Hey Joe.” He lived and performed in
Northern California until he was seriously injured when his car drove off an
embankment along Highway 1 north of San
Francisco in 1991.

Niela Miller originally began performing after meeting Eric Weisberg in Greenwich Village. One of her other songs “Mean World Blues” was recorded by Dave
Van Ronk. She eventually became a psychotherapist, counselor, author and
educator. She continues her crusade for
acknowledgment as a composer of “Hey Joe.” Here’s a link to her recording “Sounds
of Leaving”: http://www.numerogroup.com/products/niela-miller-songs-of-leaving

On American Pastimes: Niela
Miller’s “Baby Please Don’t Go to
Town,” Carl Smith’s “Hey Joe,” Billy Roberts playing some
12-string instrumentals he recorded for World Pacific Records; The Byrds, Tim
Rose, Tim O’Brien & Jerry Douglas perform “Hey Joe.” Dave Van Ronk’s
cover of “Mean World Blues.” And a
version or two of “Little Sadie” and
Melanie’s “Nickel Song,” a tune about
her royalties (or lack thereof).